Sheriff’s Continuing EducationFebruary 26-28, 2013

The Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center will be hosting Sheriff’s Continuing Education again in 2013.
We have changed the curriculum for 2013. We will be covering Threat Assessment, the Fusion Center, ICE, and Workman’s Compensation, just to name a few.

Look for a full curriculum on this page soon.

Questions? Call Jim Davis, Staff Instructor NLETC at 308-385-6030

New NLETC Training Curriculum in 2013

By William Muldoon, Director, Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center

One major accomplishment of the Police Standards Advisory Council (PSAC) for 2012 was the completion of the 2012 Job Task Analysis (JTA) that will affect our basic training curriculum in 2013.

PSAC through the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice contracted with Systems Design Group in 2012 to conduct the JTA for the position of entry-level law enforcement officer for the state of Nebraska. By state law, PSAC has a legal mandate to conduct a job validation study every eight years. The last study was delivered in 2003.

The purpose of the study was to identify the job content of entry-level law enforcement officers and validate that content to the training curriculum used in all Nebraska basic academy training programs. The current curriculum was evaluated to see what was missing and to prepare learning objectives for missing content.
Over 700 line officers and 400 supervisors from 120 agencies participated in the survey. Statistically valid samples were obtained from all targeted sizes and types of law enforcement agencies.

The officers answered over 600 questions regarding the frequency of tasks that they perform and equipment that they use. The supervisors answered similar questions, but also commented on the importance of the task or risks if the task was not done right. They also answered a question on when the officer should have received the training on that task. Those choices ranged from knowledge the officer should know when hired, and knowledge and skills learned at the basic academy, to advanced training following the academy.

From that data a representative committee reflecting Nebraska law enforcement reviewed and presented the data to the Police Standards Advisory Council.
• The Council approved a plan to reduce 63 hours from current curriculum content, add 26 hours in new courses, and add 69 hours of material to existing courses.
• The Council approved a 640 hour basic curriculum with 36 additional administrative and testing hours. The former curriculum was 608 hours basic instruction with 40 hours of administrative and testing time.

The new curriculum requires an increase in the amount of time required to deliver the basic course. The current 14 week curriculum will expand to about 16 weeks and even longer, depending on how state holidays fall on the calendar. It also will require a continuous flow of training from one year to the next, including that in some years, training will continue over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

It will be important for agency administrators to check the training calendar for the start dates of the next basic when making hiring decisions. The old system of 3 basic classes starting in January, May and August each year will give way to five basics over two years. It is our intent to train the same number of students as is currently done and still offer all the mandated and specialized training as is currently accomplished.

A side benefit to this project was the development and validation of a new medical form that will be implemented in 2013. The new medical form has been validated for the position of Nebraska law enforcement officer based on the data from the JTA and can be used for making both your hiring decision (post job offer medical examination) and for admission to the academy.

This project was very important to Nebraskans as our end goal is graduating law enforcement officers from our academies who are able to perform the duties of a law enforcement officer as shown through validated academy curriculum.